A group of organizers against Atlanta’s planned public safety training center are taking an initiative they hope will lead to the controversial project being placed on ballots in the November election.
The “Vote to Stop Cop City” coalition has launched a referendum campaign, just one day after Atlanta City Council voted in the early morning to approve $68 million in city funding for the facility — after listening to 14 hours of public comment against the project.
The group filed a petition with the city clerk on Wednesday.
A deadline for the city clerk to approve the referendum in order for it to appear on the November ballot is June 16. Once all that is complete, organizers will have 60 days, or until August 15, to collect 75,000 signatures from Atlanta voters who were registered in the past election.
“The Atlanta City Council has again turned its back on working class, particularly Black Atlantans,” Kamau Franklin, organizer and community leader, said. “The overwhelming majority of people opposed Cop City but the city council chose again to side with the police and corporations to continue to criminalize our community — which is why it is time for the people of Atlanta to decide.”
The group is using as a model a recent referendum that took place in Camden County involving a proposed spaceport. The county supported that project, but it was voted down by residents.
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